The increasing number of electronic devices in the vehicle has made it necessary to display a greater quantity of information therein. Modern vehicles encompass a multitude of driver assistance systems, for example, whose information must be displayed in the vehicle. Moreover, vehicles often include a navigation system. Such a navigation system may be used to display digital geographic road maps including a route and, in some instances, multifarious supplementary information. Finally, in many cases, modern vehicles encompass communication and multimedia applications, including a cell phone interface and devices for playing back music and voice. For these applications, it must also be possible to display information in the vehicle.
To be able to flexibly display the multifarious information, freely programmable displays are used, for example, which frequently assume the playback task performed by conventional mechanical instruments. German Published Patent Application No. 10 2006 032 118 describes an instrument cluster for a motor vehicle, for example, that includes a display which may be used to variably display the velocity of the motor vehicle, the speed of the motor vehicle engine, the temperature of the motor vehicle engine, the tank level and/or the time. Moreover, information from a navigation system, a phone, a music system, an infotainment system and/or an air conditioning system may be displayed.
In addition to the instrument cluster, a display device, in which further information may be displayed, is frequently configured above the center console of the vehicle. This display device is used, in particular, as a multifunctional display and for displaying a geographic map of a navigation system. Such a multifunctional display is described, for example, in German Published Patent Application No. 199 41 956.
PCT Published Patent Application No. WO 2009/024474 describes a method for displaying information where a two-dimensional object is graphically displayed on a display. The graphical object includes a display field and an operator control field. The display field is shown on one side of the two-dimensional graphical object and the operator control field on the other side thereof. In response to an input by an input device, the graphic data to be displayed on the display are modified in a manner that causes the graphical object to rotate from one side to the other in a perspective representation on the display.
Very special requirements arise in connection with the displaying of information in a vehicle. In the vehicle, the information is acquired, inter alia, by the driver. Thus, it is imperative that the information be displayed in the vehicle in a manner that does not distract the driver when he/she acquires information while driving. Therefore, the driver should be able to intuitively and quickly acquire the displayed information, so that he/she only needs to avert his/her gaze very briefly from the driving situation in order to acquire information. If the operation of the vehicle devices is supported or managed by a display, the display should be provided in a manner that only requires the driver to glance very quickly at the display in order to implement the operation.
Also, when information is displayed in mobile devices, it should be able to be acquired quickly and intuitively. It is, namely, often the case that the user of the mobile device acquires the displayed information while he/she is performing other tasks. In this context, the problem also arises that the display area of a mobile device is often relatively small, so that it is especially important that the displayed information be readily comprehensible, and that a change in the information content be easy to follow.